Eat Cambridge

This year's Eat Cambridge festival, 9th til 24th May, showcases local independent food producers throughout the county of Cambridgeshire.  We are so pleased to be a part of this, and will be preparing some innovative dishes in partnership with the Cambridge Organic Food Co, who work closely with Cambridge Sustainable Food.

The ethos of sourcing sustainable food, locally grown, and organic where possible fits very well with our mission at Bridges. So we are really looking forward to seeing what produce will be available to us during the festival. We have planned some meals in advance, but are used to tweaking them to fit with whatever is available on the day. So what constitutes 'sustainable food?' Cambridge Sustainable Food working definition is that it should be produced, processed and traded in ways that:

• Contribute to thriving local economies and sustainable livelihoods – both in the UK and, in the case of imported products, in producer countries;

• Protect the diversity of both plants and animals (and the welfare of farmed and wild species), and avoid damaging natural resources and contributing to climate change;

• Provide social benefits, such as good quality food, safe and healthy products, and educational opportunities.

So when you visit Bridges during Eat Cambridge, do ask about today's sustainable dish or juice! https://www.cofco.co.uk/

http://www.cambridgesustainablefood.org/

http://www.eat-cambridge.co.uk/

Natural & Organic Products Show

It was a special Sunday – as the Natural & Organic Products show didn’t fall on weekday, I took my children (10 & 13) with me to the trade show this year (19th April) at the ExCel Centre.

Chan & I have been to the Smoothie Chamionship UK held by the Lunch! exhibition for the last few years, and we always had great time watching the creative and fun ways the show promotes healthy juicing.  While it has always been a ‘Smoothie Championship’, we were thrilled to know Diversified is now running a Juicing Championship as well. In this case 75% of the drink needs to have a fresh juice base. This is the first juicing competition to be held at the Natural & Organic Products show.

This was also sponsored by Juico which makes an extremely quiet slow juicer suitable for both household and commercial use. My children have been big fans of my daily creation of juices and smoothies at home and asked if they could try all 9 shortlisted juices too.

Being a devoted mum and a big fan of raw juice, I was lucky to be one of the 10 guests judges to test the look, taste, originality & health benefits of the creations. One extra factor for me to consider before casting my vote was to ask what the children thought after their tiny sips of each.

The best part of my journey was to meet the celebrity chefs and food writers in person. I have cookbooks from them, watched them on TV and also read their columns on newspapers, but to see them giving advice and answering live questions was a first for me and very thrilling.

I agreed with food writer Christine Bailey, who says juicing is about introducing more vegetables into your diet instead of putting too much fruit, which may increase consumption of too much fruit sugar.  Nutritionist & TV chef Dale Pinnock’s advice about the whole food and raw ingredients and their medicinal value also impressed my children. I particularly like what celebrity chef Arthur Potts Dawson said about the amount of food waste we are facing and how juicing can make full use of the earth’s limited supply.

It was a full on one hour show with fun and informative question time. I was amazed with these juicing professionals' knowledge and multi-tasking skills, rustling up their juices while answering all the questions from the MCs. After 3 heats the semi-finalists were judged by the industry judges and I could finally put away my voting cards and jot down all the notes of the creations for home and for our customers to try. Not surprisingly, all the judges voted the same one - a super creation from Crussh - their juice Lean Green proved to be an overall winner for the adults’ taste buds as well as that of my children.

Whilst the children went off to sample all the healthy snacks in the show, I stayed behind in the show kitchen to watch Andrew Jones of Chamberlain's to demonstrate a Crab & Oyster dish from scratch. Oh my, I almost forgot my children had wandered off as I was keen to stay to sample the finished product! It was nearly time for their tea but they told me they'd already refuelled with kale crisps from inSpiral, 100% coconut snacks & drinks by CocoNuts, omega3 rich bread from Biona, and lots of nut-free brownies.

I continued to research on the train home with all the leaflets I picked up, whilst my children dozed. Was it an illusion or was their skin glowing after consuming all those healthy nibbles? The saying, ‘You are what you eat’ popped up again in my mind…. Did they mention the word ‘nut-free’ earlier – phew!

In all, it was such a fun family day. Now more cook books from the health advocates I met are on order; I’m sure we are ready for more ‘feel-good’ family dinners ahead.

Love Cambridge Blue!

Here at Bridges we have been fuelling the Cambridge University crews with our nutritious and delicious juices for a while now so it was only natural that we should want to do a window display in support of the upcoming BNY Mellon Boat Races.

What's more, this is the first year in their long history that the Newton Women's Boat Race get to race on the same stretch of the river and on the same day as the men - about time too!

The races will take place on Saturday 11th April along the banks of the Tideway, between Putney and Mortlake in London, and we are encouraging local businesses and individuals to get behind the teams.

To mark this historic occasion Karen and Mandy have created two 'Then and Now' posters that you can download and print yourselves to put in your windows, and use the hashtag #lovecambridgeblue when sharing on social media. 

The Museum of Cambridge are holding an exhibition of past rowing photos and memorabilia whichs opens on the 7th April, which features in the 'Then' poster so do pop along and take a look. Download the poster here.

The 'Now' poster celebrates the Women's team and their fight for sporting equality. Download the poster here.

If you put a poster in your window do let us know on social media with the hashtag #lovecambridgeblue so we can share it!

Thanks to Anton Wright at Clare College for the loan of the oars and to Dr Pat Marsh for putting us in touch with the teams and BNY Mellon for all the other goodies, and a very special mention goes to Saskia, one of our younger customers, for loaning us her incredible interpretation of the Women's crew in action!

http://theboatraces.org/about-the-race

http://www.cuwbc.org.uk/

http://www.cubc.org.uk/

#lovecambridgeblue